Timothy Berg
Director, Drumshow
Tim Berg, M.M., is a percussionist, composer, and educator currently residing in Chicago, Illinois. He has taken music lessons since age six and has played piano, guitar, drums, and mallet percussion professionally since recording his first CD at the age of fourteen. A graduate of Maine South High School in Park Ridge, IL, Mr. Berg studied with Darren Scorza and Kevin Connelley in the Chicago area throughout high school up to his acceptance as a scholarship student of William Moersch and Ricardo Flores at the University of Illinois. He holds degrees in Percussion Performance & Literature as well as Music Education.
As an arranger and performer Mr. Berg is best known for his work on the steel pan. Currently he is working on recording original arrangements of J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin on solo tenor pan. His steel pan music and arrangements span a variety of genres from traditional calypso and soca to classical chamber music to popular video game songs. In the past Mr. Berg has toured and recorded with Bones Jugs (formerly Bones Jugs N Harmony), playing steel pan, xylophone, drum set, guitar, and many other toy percussion instruments. He was credited on three albums of both original music and covers and has performed at venues and festivals all across the United States.
In addition to his duties directing Drumshow, Mr. Berg also acts as the director of the Naperville District 203 Steel Pan Program, writes and teaches for the Lincoln-Way Marching Band from New Lenox, IL, and is the Front Ensemble Coordinator/Digital Designer for The Academy Drum & Bugle Corps from Tempe, AZ. He is a proud endorser of Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets and is very excited to be a part of Drumshow!
Brandon Estes
Assistant Director, Drumshow
Brandon Estes, Co-Director of Bands at Naperville Central High School, is an active educator, clinician, and adjudicator throughout Illinois and Texas. His responsibilities include Director of the Marching Redhawks, Co-teaching 3 curricular concert bands, Co-Director of the NCHS Drumshow Percussion Ensemble, Jazz 2 jazz ensemble, instructor for Music Theory I and Music Production classes.
A native of Houston, Texas, Mr. Estes holds a B.M. in Music Education from Texas State University-San Marcos where he studied percussion under Genaro Gonzalez, Tony Edwards, and John Lopez. He earned his M.M. in Music Performance from Northern Illinois University, where he was Graduate Percussion Assistant to Professor Robert Chappell and Dr. Gregory Beyer with further studies under Richard Holly, Liam Teague, Clifford Alexis, and Dr. Thomas Bough.
Mr. Estes’ extensive drum corps performance experience includes membership with Pioneer and the Madison Scouts drum corps between 1998 and 2002. In 2005, he served as Co-Arranger and Percussion Caption Head of the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps. As a rudimental performer, Brandon was a founding member of the Chicago Bulls Stampede Drumline (2007-2014) and is a former member of the Chicago Bears Drumline (2008 – 2022), in which he served as Director since 2011. The Chicago Bears Drumline was proud to complete two international performance visits to London, England in 2011 and 2012. In recent years, he continues to perform with Chicago’s-own Rhythm Messengers Drumline with performance highlights including Kygo and Two Friends at Madison Square Garden. Mr. Estes is a proud educational endorser of Promark and Evans under the D’Addario brand.
As an orchestral performer, Estes has performed with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Elmhurst Symphony of Elmhurst, Illinois as well as the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Mr. Estes is also a founding percussion performer with the Chicagoland Educators Orchestra, under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Miller of the Air National Guard.
Mr. Estes enjoys spending time with his wonderful wife, Natasha, and their daughters, Bailey and Harper and son Jackson!